Piastri sends a message in final Bahrain practice

Oscar Piastri fired a warning shot ahead of Qualifying, topping the timesheets in FP3 with a blistering late-session lap that left the field—and his teammate—scrambling to keep up.

Despite having just one final hour of practice before the first competitive session of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, drivers were in no rush to commence their FP3 running when the light went green in the pitlane.

In the opening ten minutes, the Ferrari-powered cars were the only cars to grace the scorching Bahrain International Circuit, with the rest opting to hide away from the hot conditions for as long as possible.

Speaking on the track surface, Oliver Bearman called the change in grip levels from day to night “quite impressive”, saying “it’s crazy how bad the grip is compared to before”.

Even though he joined the session after almost 15 minutes of running, Jack Doohan was one of the first five drivers to begin his FP3 campaign, armed with the medium compound.

On his first tour of the 5.4km circuit, the Australian had a minor moment as he rode the kerbs, presumably caught out by the growing tailwind that seemed to catch many other drivers out as well.

After setting a time of 1:35.574s, the Australian took a quick trip through the pitlane before continuing with a steady program. 

Falling to P12, Doohan started his qualifying simulations by setting the fastest first sector, however, the tailwind at Turn 11 caught the Australian out and he opted to abort the remainder of the lap.

Going again, the Australian had a snap through the opening sector which instantly left him off the pace and, despite his personal best times across the remainder of the lap, he had to settle for P12 again.

His compatriot made his first FP3 appearance at the 40-minute mark, with Oscar Piastri using a set of soft compound tyres to set the then-fastest time of the session, a 1:33.324s that knocked his teammate down a peg.

After a quick trip back to his garage, Piastri got back in the swing of things as he kicked off his long-run program.

With 10 minutes remaining, however, the Australian stunned almost every pit wall up and down the pitlane when he emerged on another set of the C3, setting a blistering time of 1:31.646s which was over 1.3 seconds clear of the nearest driver.

Despite the field’s best efforts, the lap was untouchable and Piastri remained the fastest driver through to the chequered flag, with Lando Norris only managing to come within seven-tenths as FP3 came to a close.

Liam Lawson made his first appearance of the hour when FP3 neared the halfway mark, following his teammate out of the pitlane on the medium compound.

Setting a top-ten time, Lawson noted that “the wind [was] making a big difference into [Turn] 11” on his way to setting a time of 1:34.904s.

When it came time to kick off his performance runs, Lawson formed the back of a Red Bull-powered P5-P6-P7, with the RB drivers sandwiching Verstappen.

The Kiwi had a quick reset in the pits before rejoining the session, however, he was unable to improve from P13, ending FP3 1.7 seconds behind the benchmark.

As for the rest of the field, the top teams gradually started to roll out of the pitlane with 40 minutes on the clock. 

Continuing with his flying form, Norris set the early benchmark of the session with a time of 1:33.796s.

Unhappy with his set-up from the get-go, Max Verstappen had hoped to take a step closer to the McLaren duo on Saturday, however, the start of his charge was delayed as he returned to the Red Bull garage after calling his RB21 “terrible”.

Having worse luck, Nico Hulkenberg was forced to pull off to the side of the circuit after his car went into anti-stall, an issue that the team couldn’t amend from a distance.

A Virtual Safety Car was called to allow the marshals to clear the Sauber, seeing Hulkenberg lose the rest of his qualifying preparation thanks to the issue. 

When the track was green, the rest of the field continued lapping while Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari soon became a few grams lighter as his mirror went flying off, however, it was a relatively quick fix.

Speaking of fixes, Verstappen had returned to the track to set the second fastest time of the hour, splitting the McLaren duo whose initial lap times had continued to hold their own.

In the final ten minutes, the track temperature was as low as it would ever be during the last hour of practice, meaning it was time for the most accurate qualifying simulations to kick off. 

McLaren only confirmed that it was in a league of his own after Piastri and Norris had locked in their impressive laps, with only two drivers including the #4 able to come within a second of Piastri’s final benchmark. 

The second of the two able to do so was Leclerc, who jumped ahead of the Mercedes duo in the dying moments of FP3.

The only other drivers from the top four teams to finish within the top ten were Verstappen and Hamilton, with the Red Bull driver taking the flag in P8, while Hamilton scraped by in P10.

Ahead of the supposedly quicker cars, Pierre Gasly, Isack Hadjar and Carlos SAINZ had set top-ten pace on the soft compound, giving the midfield teams some extra motivation heading into qualifying.

While overtaking has proven to be very possible around the Bahrain International Circuit, Qualifying is still just as important, making the upcoming session one to watch.

The hour shootout to determine the grid for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix will kick off shortly at 02:00 AEST.

Image: McLaren

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